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37 Reasons Why “The Economic Recovery” Is A Giant Lie

By Michael Snyder, on December 8th, 2013

“If you repeat a lie often enough, people will believe it.” Sadly, that appears to be the approach that the Obama administration and the mainstream media are taking with the U.S. economy. They seem to believe that if they just keep telling the American people over and over that things are getting better, eventually the American people will believe that it is actually true. On Friday, it was announced that the unemployment rate had fallen to “7 percent”, and the mainstream media responded with a mix of euphoria and jubilation. For example, one USA Today article declared that “with today’s jobs report, one really can say that our long national post-financial crisis nightmare is over.” But is that actually the truth? As you will see below, if you assume that the labor force participation rate in the U.S. is at the long-term average, the unemployment rate in the United States would actually be 11.5 percent instead of 7 percent. There has been absolutely no employment recovery. The percentage of Americans that are actually working has stayed between 58 and 59 percent for 51 months in a row. But most Americans don’t understand these things and they just take whatever the mainstream media tells them as the truth.

And of course the reality of the matter is that we should have seen some sort of an economic recovery by now. Those running our system have literally been mortgaging the future in a desperate attempt to try to pump up our economic numbers. The federal government has been on the greatest debt binge in U.S. history and the Federal Reserve has been printing money like crazed lunatics. All of that “stimulus” should have had some positive short-term effects on the economy.

Sadly, all of those “emergency measures” do not appear to have done much at all. The percentage of Americans that have a job has stayed remarkably flat since the end of 2009, median household income has fallen for five years in a row, and the rate of homeownership in the United States has fallen for eight years in a row. Anyone that claims that the U.S. economy is experiencing a “recovery” is simply not telling the truth. The following are 37 reasons why “the economic recovery” is a giant lie…

#1 The only reason that the official unemployment rate has been declining over the past couple of years is that the federal government has been pretending that millions upon millions of unemployed Americans no longer want a job and have “left the labor force”. As Zero Hedge recently demonstrated, if the labor force participation rate returned to the long-term average of 65.8 percent, the official unemployment rate in the United States would actually be 11.5 percent instead of 7 percent.

#2 The percentage of Americans that are actually working is much lower than it used to be. In November 2000, 64.3 percent of all working age Americans had a job. When Barack Obama first entered the White House, 60.6 percent of all working age Americans had a job. Today, only 58.6 percent of all working age Americans have a job. In fact, as you can see from the chart posted below, there has been absolutely no “employment recovery” since the depths of the last recession…

#13 In this economic environment, there is intense competition even for the lowest paying jobs. Wal-Mart recently opened up two new stores in Washington D.C., and more than 23,000 people applied for just 600 positions. That means that only about 2.6 percent of the applicants were ultimately hired. In comparison, Harvard offers admission to 6.1 percent of their applicants.

#14 According to the Social Security Administration, 40 percent of all U.S. workers make less than $20,000 a year.

#15 When Barack Obama took office, the average duration of unemployment in this country was 19.8 weeks. Today, it is 37.2 weeks.

#16 According to the New York Times, long-term unemployment in America is up by 213 percent since 2007.

#17 Thanks to Obama administration policies which are systematically killing off small businesses in the United States, the percentage of self-employed Americans is at an all-time low today.

#21 Back in 1999, 64.1 percent of all Americans were covered by employment-based health insurance. Today, only 54.9 percent of all Americans are covered by employment-based health insurance, and thanks to Obamacare millions more Americans are now losing their health insurance plans.

#22 As 2003 began, the average price of a gallon of regular gasoline was about $1.30. When Barack Obama took office, the average price of a gallon of regular gasoline was $1.85. Today, it is $3.26.

#23 Total consumer credit has risen by a whopping 22 percent over the past three years.

#24 In 2008, the total amount of student loan debt in this country was sitting at about 440 billion dollars. Today, it has shot up to approximately a trillion dollars.

#25 Under Barack Obama, the velocity of money (a very important indicator of economic health) has plunged to a post-World War II low.

#28 Right now, 1.2 million students that attend public schools in the United States are homeless. That is a brand new all-time record high, and that number has risen by 72 percent since the start of the last recession.

#29 When Barack Obama first entered the White House, there were about 32 million Americans on food stamps. Today, there are more than 47 million Americans on food stamps.

#31 According to the Survey of Income and Program Participation conducted by the U.S. Census, well over 100 million Americans are enrolled in at least one welfare program run by the federal government.

#32 In 2000, the U.S. government spent 199 billion dollars on Medicaid. In 2008, the U.S. government spent 338 billion dollars on Medicaid. In 2012, the U.S. government spent 417 billion dollars on Medicaid, and now Obamacare is going to add tens of millions more Americans to the Medicaid rolls.

#33 In 2000, the U.S. government spent 219 billion dollars on Medicare. In 2008, the U.S. government spent 462 billion dollars on Medicare. In 2012, the U.S. government spent 560 billion dollars on Medicare, and that number is expected to absolutely skyrocket in the years ahead as the Baby Boomers retire.

#34 According to the most recent numbers from the U.S. Census Bureau, an all-time record high 49.2 percent of all Americans are receiving benefits from at least one government program.

#35 The U.S. government has spent an astounding 3.7 trillion dollars on welfare programs over the past five years.

#37 The U.S. national debt is on pace to more than double during the eight years of the Obama administration. In other words, under Barack Obama the U.S. government will accumulate more debt than it did under all of the other presidents in U.S. history combined.

Fortunately, it appears that most Americans are not buying into the propaganda. According to a new CNN survey, the percentage of Americans that believe that the economy is getting worse far exceeds the percentage of Americans that believe that the economy is improving…

Americans views on the state of the nation are turning increasingly sour, according to a new national poll.

And a CNN/ORC International survey released Friday also indicates that less than a quarter of the public says that economic conditions are improving, while nearly four in ten say the nation’s economy is getting worse.
Forty-one percent of those questioned in the poll say things are going well in the country today, down nine percentage points from April, and the lowest that number has been in CNN polling since February 2012. Fifty-nine percent say things are going badly, up nine points from April.

So what do you think?

Do you believe that the U.S. economy is getting better or getting worse? Please feel free to share what you think by posting a comment below…

During the Depression of the 30’s the song “Happy Days Are Here Again” was borne for the same reason so as to convince the Sheeple back then that better times were right around the corner.

goldminer

Happy days are here again was recorded just before the great stock market crash of 1929.

FDR accepted his democratic nomination for president in 1932, to that tune. It became the theme song for the democratic party.

But where it really gained popularity was the the Repeal of Prohibition, which occurred shortly after Roosevelt’s election.
But now. In these times. The tune needs to be changed to…
Happy Daze are here again.

americalsgt

They also sang “Life is Just a bowl of cherries” Don’t take it serious – It’s too mysterious.You work, you slave, you worry so, but you can’t take your dough when you go go go.

And we are now left with the pits.

Guest

Life is good if you work for the federal government. Last night I found an interesting website called Government Salary Data. It has a search function where you can enter a federal employee’s name, and it discloses their annual salary. I used to work for the federal government, so I know many federal employees. And I could not believe what some of my former coworkers are making! I worked with one guy many years ago who now works for the White House Budget Office (OMB). His annual salary is over $156,000! I nearly fell on the floor. I was upset when I went to bed last night. The reason being is that when the crisis began in 2008, millions of Americans in the private sector lost their jobs, while relatively few federal employees lost theirs. And, to add insult to injury, federal employee salaries continued to skyrocket during the recession. It’s not right. This disparity between public and private-sector compensation needs to be addressed, but it never will be.

davidmpark

Context: my wife’s disability payments and the kid’s survivor benefits – all from Social Security; plus EBT, and any utility assistance, comes to below $18,000 annually.

The bureaucrats also get A LOT of benefits that inflates their total compensation exponentially higher than private sector. We get a lot of non-coverage letters from Medicare/Medicaid.

krinks

This is what happens when we vote for those that promise the most of other people’s money. Add to this the godless people the parasites have been voting for and this is what we get.

XSANDIEGOCA

In Russia, they were known as the Nomenklatura. During the siege of Leningrad by the Germans in WWII, the Nomenklatura ate very well while the rest of the population resorted to cannibalism. Nothing has changed.

Hammerstrike

No, that was perestroïka era.

k

Instead of eating each other, they should have eaten the nazis instead.

XSANDIEGOCA

Ultimately, they did.

El Pollo de Oro

I know a guy who makes six figures working a cushy job for the Parks & Rec dept. in NYC. This idiot barely made it through high school, and you would not believe some of the crap that comes out of his mouth: the recession ended in 2009 (ha ha ha!), private sector workers are lazier than public sector workers, self-employed people are freeloaders because they get too many tax deductions, if you can’t make it with a genius like Obama at the helm it’s because you’re lazy and unmotivated. Oh, it gets worse. This “rugged individualist” takes month-long vacations in Europe at the taxpayers’ expense, gets very generous benefits, and plans to retire with a full pension when he’s about 62 or 63. In a nutshell, he is a poster child for everything people in the private sector hate about government workers.

notyranny

Sickening. I know guys I went to school with who were morons also. These scumbags drive sports cars and wear Rolex watches as fireman.

We pay taxes so these dumb, lazy stooges can live large and retire early on our dime.

El Pollo de Oro

And the Park & Rec worker I mentioned likes to say that we need to “crack down” on those small business owners who take too many tax deductions. This is a guy who had a major operation at the taxpayers’ expense yet thinks small business owners are getting a “government handout” because they are allowed to deduct the cost of their health insurance.

notyranny

That scumbag Park & Rec worker should be fired for stupidity and be forced to get a real job, where he’d make dog crap pay and have to actually perform or get fired. Small business is what creates the majority of jobs in America. Guys like him make me sick.

They have that misconception, because they get everything handed to them. They are parasites.

El Pollo de Oro

If the city-worker pensions in NYC ever end up like the pensions in Detroit, Mr. Six-Figure Park & Rec might get a very rude awakening. This dude hasn’t been in the private sector in at least 25 years.

Kat73

they tell us we need an eduction to come closer to their league, then they cut the middle manager jobs and plenty of other ‘middle-class’ type roles. We are then becoming deeper and deeper into debt, just because we want a jo, because we are trying to earn the right to fight in a loosing battle.

Gill O’Teen

It’s not an education that gets you higher up the salary ladder, never has been. It’s an education that gives you a marketable skill. There is a valid reason that plumbers earn more than just another women’s studies major. In a free market, employers pay based on what an employee can do for them. Your compensation is based on whether or not you produce a profit for the business. Want to earn more, make yourself more valuable to your employer.
This applies to the lowest paid tidy bowl cleaner as well as the highest paid CEO. There is a reason A Rod makes really big bucks playing baseball and I don’t make a penny.

notyranny

the fact that these federal government workers get paid more than the average private-sector worker makes my blood boil.

GSOB

The 10th Commandment is invoked against you,… Guest.

You don’t understand half of what you talk about.

Guest

I do know what I’m talking about, GSOB. I worked in Washington D.C.for the federal government for many years. There is a great disparity between public and private-sector compensation. Many federal workers are overpaid, especially in Washington, D.C.

As to you invoking the 10th commandment against me, please tell me how I have borne false witness? I’m a Christian, and I take your accusation seriously, so I want an answer.

GSOB

Gladly.

Where is the context of the thread so I can reply to you “Guest”..

Thanks

Gill O’Teen

Theoretically, each and every government worker is an employee of the taxpayer. The taxpayers are entitled to know what those who labor on our behalf are paid. So unless these workers have something to hide what are they (and you) afraid of? Some states, including mine, publish the names, addresses and salaries of each and every state employee in a book that is available to any inquiring mind that wants to know. At the time my name was so published, the highest paid employees of this state were the head football and basketball coaches at State U.

k

But shouldn’t we be satisified with the salary the corporations give us? even if it isnt enough to feed us?

K

The Government has always lied, although Obama may be a little worse than most. To me what has changed is the American people. This nation has become mostly cowards. A people who no longer believe there is any difference between right and wrong. Such people can not keep a true Republic, going for any length of time. That is what you are seeing, the death of a republic, and the beginning of a new world order. Few are the people who will stand against it.

Bill

I stand against it.
1. Bill
(Who’s next)

davidmpark

2. Dave

camel

3. Vera

chilller

4. GGrrrrrr……!

Jodi

5. Jodi

kathy k

7. kathy k

Dean

Dean

Goldfinger

8. Goldfinger

kfilly

I stand against. Most of the people I know are brain dead sheep. They don’t want to know, or they don’t care. Pathetic!

K

To those of you who responded to my post, Thank-you. I know we still exist, we are not extinct. But we sure are on the endangered list. To you blessed few, I raise my glass.

Jodi

You’re not alone. Brain dead people are everywhere.

http://yourdaddy.net/ NotaLemming

It is the New Zombie!
Welcome to the ObamaNation.

soleri

One thing all you right-wing birdbrains don’t seem to remember is who crashed the economy in the first place. Hint: it’s same ideology that deregulates the economy so the rich can get richer and “create jobs!”. And, true to the white-trash consciousness on display here, it’s only those mega-rich who must have America’s interests at heart. Say, a Mitt Romney who helped dismantle American companies in order to gut their pension plans, thus becoming filthy rich in the process. That’s capitalism spelled R-U-S-H L-I-M-B-A-U-G-H! If any of you losers actually lived in the Randian dystopia that your puppetmasters intend for us, you’d be squawking Ted Cruz having to pay for his own health insurance.. Really, leave economics, science, empiricism, and eschatology to people who don’t mix neo-Confederate fantasies with “hard truths”. I

Gay Veteran

BOTH parties are responsible for our current mess: deregulated banksters, corporations shipping jobs overseas, devaluation of the $, etc.

http://yourdaddy.net/ NotaLemming

The Mega Rich are doing better under Obama than anyone. The War Machine is also grinding out solder meat like clock work. Obama Nobel Prize… Serial Liar. NSA Spying on everyone.

You know what I think pisses Dictator lovers off the most is when they wake up and realize that Obama Is George Bush on Steriods

Michael Rizzo

No sense fixing the problem when we can fight over fixing the blame, right? As for whose responsible I notice those who hate right wingers nveer bring up Clinton removing the glass-Stegal restictions on banking which allowed them to grow to such parasitical behmoths. Clinton also blew the first fed bubble with greenspan and set the stage for housing with the community housing act (might be wrong on the name there its 530 am). How about the Dem’s in congress blocking anyone from looking into Fannie and Freddie’s loan making rules in the 2000’s Maxine Waters and Barney Frank ever heard of them.
Last but not least we don’t have capitalism in this country we have corpratism where all the money flows into the coffers of those who already have it.

David Horace

^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^What Mike said A++.

David Horace

Yeah, let’s all work for the govt. That’ll fix things.

CattEyez

The real question is “where did our jobs go”? Look back to Slick Willy who enacted NAFTA/GAAT i.e. free trade. All of our jobs have been offshored, we have been sold out for cheap labor. You cannot have a recovery and not manufacture any goods. Everything we buy is made in China. So where are these jobs coming from? Meanwhile, Bill Clinton also abolished the glass-steagal and allowed banks and brokerage firms to get back in bed together and that is what triggered the 2008 financial crisis. He also signed the homeowner act allowing people to get into these fraudulent mortgages to begin with. So if you’re going to shake your finger, I suggest you do it at the right person and that would be Bill Clinton.

laura m.

Response to three posts above mine: also, as a retiree, I view most all humanity incl my peers, as spiritually dead/blinded by satan, so few are enlightened; Many appear to be “soulless” meaning: can’t reason or think straight, ignorance, apathy, no will to get their head out of hind end. Edit your friends and relatives; no one needs loser friends/ditch even relatives who are useless time wasters. I had to cg email address even. Stay low key and keep prep.

Mondobeyondo

I stand against it! Remember, if you don’t stand up for something, you’ll fall for anything.

laura m.

K: Exactly the reason we quit voting in the early 80’s on. Early 80’s hubby had to relocate one state up, for a job. Few then could afford loans as interest rates were double digit on houses, which went on thru that whole decade . Some were even prepping then, folks I knew,- they are now pushing daisies.

bertinanth764

my Aunty Olivia just got
Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG Coupe by working part time off of a macbook. my
explanation B­i­g­2­9­.­ℂ­o­m

Bill

I don’t believe the economy is improving and I don’t believe the propaganda from the bummer administration. I do believe the video I heard today of an individual who verified bummer’s original Kenyan birth certificate. That is good. Once it is official that he is a fraud then all his actions will be null and void. That would be a start to rebuilding America.

ian

who freaking cares where he was born. Seriously delusional people.

Bill

Perhaps you are not American, at least you don’t seem to appreciate what it stands for. True Americans appreciate their country, the principals by which it stands, and those that have given their lives defending them. Those that attempt to remove them are the delusional ones.

theladyofjade

I’m trying to immigrate out. There is no hope or future in the United States any more.

dallas19

I’m 29 college educated and was laid off from my job of 3 years in September. The job market in my industry has deteriorated in the dfw area. Half of the contacts in my phone are out of work. I have a small savings enough to last a year or so. I recently got an approval for a working holiday visa to spend a year in Australia. Do the readers on this blog think I should book my flight to Sydney? I think i should go get a job on a ranch out there and not look back. Thoughts?

Ben

do it. My wife and I were living in Dallas and came to Australia in 2001. It’s much better here. We can actually see a doctor when we’re ill, imagine! And there’s less violence. And the pay is better, it’s clean and most people seem happier and more friendly and genuine.

Malcolm Reynolds

How hard was it dealing with immigration? I’ve never heard anything nice about their immigration laws. What’s your profession?

Bill

America needs you.

HiTechGrandma

Do it!! I left in 2010 and have not looked back, live in SE Asia. America has been hijacked and most Americans just do not seem to care. I do not plan on living the rest of my life in tyranny.

http://aebrain.blogspot.com Zoe_Brain

Job on a homestead (ranch to you)?
Better off in a remote area mining settlement. Conditions are terrible, pay is amazing.

Of course you have to put up with dreaded features of socialism: universal health care, gun control that works, less bureaucracy, police that actually do “protect and serve”, higher taxes.

Just remember not to overstay your visa. Go home, then apply for longer term work. Overstay and you can forget it. Show you respect the rules, and that’s a plus.

Australia is still I think the only country that has a positive balance of immigration with the US.

Bill

Winners don’t quit.

theladyofjade

Winners also don’t tend to remain in a sinking ship.

Malcolm Reynolds

May one inquire as to where you’re considering going?
At a minimum, America is done. I don’t think there’s a doubt about that. What the authoritarian left does with the remains, remains to be seen. I don’t put leftist purges beyond them so I’ve been considering Panama, Costa Rica and Belize but given that South America and Central America tend to be flowing communist and those countries don’t guarantee gun rights, I’m really hesitant.

Gay Veteran

authoritarian left = authoritarian right

Malcolm Reynolds

Nope. I believe what you are trying to say is that progressivism, which has swallowed the democrat party whole does indeed infect the republican party. (Hence the new great awakening and rise of the Tea Party)
And even so they aren’t the same. There is a wee bit of sanity left in a lot of the repubs.

Gay Veteran

because conservatism, like communism, cannot fail it can only be failed

if it were a white guy from germany, you wouldnt care, but a black man? oh lawdy no!!

Bill

You can’t fake what you don’t have.

Malcolm Reynolds

Bill! You’ve just been called a racist by a lefty loon.
You’ve just today’s hate award. What will it be, curtain #1, Curtain #2 or this nice set of dish towels?

Bill

I would rather give than receive.

Malcolm Reynolds

lol, wouldn’t we all.

notyranny

Who cares where he is born?

I’d like to go be the president of Japan, but I’m an American. There are rules for a @#$@# reason.

ian

huge difference, my friend. Obama is clearly an American and would not have been able to secure the highest office in the land if he weren’t. Think long and hard about that one for a moment. Let that sink in and then go do your homework. The sheer idiocy of the right and the tea party mentality is astounding. You people dont celebrate freedom, you worship your enslavement to your corporate masters. Suck Koch.

notyranny

You are an idiot who takes one side of the flawed two-party system.

You are a waste of time.

ian

i most certainy dont, but i do recognize the sheer idiocy and ignorance of the right and the tea partiers. Doesnt mean i am a ‘leftist loon’, it just means i have common sense and can see through the propaganda of the right.

Adam J. Bernay

Oy, not the Birther baloney. Proven false so many times over. Obama does a dozen horrible things a day. Criticism of those makes sense. But all this conspiracy carp just makes all of us who are his opponents look stupid.

Gill O’Teen

Only if he’s convicted by the Senate.

JailBanksters

When I was a Kid, if you lied about something, you had to keep lying to protect the original lie. In the end with so many lies you couldn’t recall the lies you had told. But it’s not just the USA Government, it’s every western Government is lying about the state of affairs.

Ralfine

Looks like you don’t need much more people. Maybe time to introduce birth control?

dbomb12

No comment needed at this point, but we all know this is NOT going to end well

davidmpark

Seriously, the federals need to be confronted by the taxpayers via ballot and recalls of Congress and Obama Administration. If that should fail, then confronted by the state’s holding a Constitutional Convention to repair the damage done, and possibly to prosecute the representatives in the State houses. They must be held accountable!

For reference, we would need 37 states to vote for a convention and the federal government cannot interfere nor impede what the states do to them. If Obama or any in his gang try something nasty they can be arrested for treason. This is the last resort to stop these guys. Going for the guns will ruin everything.

kfilly

A Constitutional Convention might not be all it’s cracked up to be especially considering how many people would be willing to give up our rights. It could mean an instant end to things like the Second Amendment.

davidmpark

No, it wouldn’t.

If I’m reading the 5th amendment right, they have to have a convention of the states that requires 2/3rds of all the states (that’s 34 states; not the 37 I said earlier) to vote for a constitutional convention. The convention of state’s must include exactly what will be discussed and modified before the constitutional convention takes place.

So, there’s plenty of time to put the pressure on the legislatures to fix this.

People are waking up to this. We already had a small convention of 100 legislators from 32 states last Saturday at Mount Vernon. They discussed a congressional term limit amendment and a balanced budget amendment.

This convention is the only way I can see to avoid civil war.

americalsgt

Oh but there will be civil war. Should they loose the left would start it.

davidmpark

I know. All the more reason to follow the Constitution and give the common man a chance to defend his family and those vulnerable around him.

Captain Canuck

I just love how all you uber right wing libertarians blame everything on Obama.

If you think things would’ve been any better under Romney or which ever Tea Party poster boy you would have preferred, you’re delusional.

Any right wing hawk you guys wouldn’ve thrown out there would’ve only de-regulated Wall St moreso and hastened the invetible crash you keep writing about that much faster.

justkiddingnobutseriously

Completely agree. Though some would argue that we would’ve been better off hastening the crash.

I also think it’s unfair to blame everything on Obama but it certainly sucks that he hasn’t really done much to fix…well…anything.

I guess that just speaks to how fckd everything already was when he took office.

StephenWV

Romney’s energy plan would have created 4 million additional jobs. Additionally his drill baby drill agenda would have doubled the US production of oil from 12.5% of world oil production to 25%. This huge supply of additional oil in the market place would easily reduce the price of gasoline by $1 per gallon.

US drivers consume 300 billion dollars of gasoline per year. For the reduced price of gas alone, that would be a $300 billion stimulus (without any government deficit over spending) every year, into consumers’ pockets to spend on additional goods and services requiring ADDITIONAL jobs to create those goods and services.

Add to that lowered prices for all oil related costs… world wide… There would be a multi trillion dollar stimulus for the world to end this recession.

Romney would also have clamped down on illegal aliens. There are 30 million legal and illegal foreigners in the US willing to work for less, driving down wages for middle class Americans and 10 million unemployed Americans. Go figure. Businesses do not have to spend their profits to offer higher wages or benefits to find good workers, so all the profits go to the executives and the stock holders instead of middle class workers.

You must be hooked and drunk on the kool-aid to think things would not be better under Romney. Things could not be worse under anybody.

Gay Veteran

You must be hooked and drunk on the kool-aid to think there is ANY difference between Republicans and Democrats. Both parties are controlled by the elites and we are given the illusion of choice.

StephenWV

I do not disagree with your assessment of all the Democrats and the RINOS and Romney is one. At least Romney would not have rained as much destruction on the Constitution and the economy. The liberal progressive socialist nut jobs that control government are successfully instituting their plan to destroy America.

Gay Veteran

BOTH parties believe in fascism (the merger of state and corporate powers)

StephenWV

The Democrats and RINOS do. The Teapublicans, true conservatives for the people wanting a return to the original intent of the Constitution do not. If they thought a 3rd party had a chance they would be there. They perceive it is easier to force the RINOS to either become true conservatives or come out of the closet and become the right wing of the Democratic Party which is what they are anyway.

Gay Veteran

interesting how many “teapublicans” became “rinos” when they got to DC

StephenWV

agree… they need replaced we must hold all elected officials accountable. Obama for all his lies.

StephenWV

All elected officials must be held responsible. Most get reelected which is why this country is being destroyed by the domestic enemies.

americalsgt

You have proof that things wouldn’t have improved with Romney? Personally I think they would have gotten much worse for a time, and then, right about now you would see a turn for the better. All either of us have are words Canadian Officer, but to say something would not be without being given the opportunity to prove either of us right makes you delusional, not us.

Drud

Captain – the very idea of calling libertarians “uber right wing” shows you ignorance. If you actually understood what the left/right paradigm means, you wouldn’t make those statements. farthest left in anarchy, farthest right is totalitarianism. In fact, the tow most left government ideas are Marxism and Libertarian-ism. Open, free and little need fro any government. However, Marxism has proven to not to be practical, as it ends up forcing people to share and becomes a controlled state (right wing). In libertarian-sim, the primary role of government is to provide each individual with freedom and enforce the rights of each individual. This is what made the United States great and created two and a half centuries of unprecedented growth. However, during the last few decades we have moved further right: we have a fascist state (combination of government with corporate interests), BOTH parties are the same in this system, ALL presidents for decades have contributed to this loss of freedom, NO combination of laws can solve our problems and no none in government is truly looking out for the people. Only liberty can save us and we can only have liberty when the masses ignore the party-line rhetoric, stand up and DEMAND it.

Malcolm Reynolds

” farthest left in anarchy, farthest right is totalitarianism”

um, no.

not me

Hope? Change? It amazes me how many stupid people there are in 3rd world America.

Cranky

Australian based newspapers, online and print, are finally reporting the death of the US economy. The fast food workers currently demonstrating have drawn attention to both their issue and the real state of the US economy.

Philip Arlington

The “percentage of people accepted by Harvard” argument is overfamiliar, always misleading and thus thoroughly tiresome.

The relevant comparison would between the percentage of these 23,000 applicants who were accepted by Wal-Mart and the percentage of the same people who would be accepted if they applied to Harvard, which would be close to zero.

Oldphartbsa

In a general sense, those that are applying to WalMart would have a tough time just getting accepted to a community college, let alone an Ivy League college.
One must be able to read, write and argue coherently. The mass of the people have been taught little to none of this.

Jimbo

I agree with you on that one. Harvard (as with any university), has minimum acceptance criteria before an application can be considered. Therefore, all applicants in the pool will meet those criteria.

Most times, quality of argument is better than quantity.

XSANDIEGOCA

My neighbor down the street informs me his new Obama Care premium will be double his old “sub par” plan premium. He is a Middle Class guy. Has anyone stopped to ask the impact of these increased premiums on our weakened economy?
The Political Class is maneuvering to pass immigration reform. This will add another 20-30MM to the rolls with yet another 20-30MM added via chain migration within 5 years or so. Most of these folk will qualify for subsidies extracted from Middle Class guys like my friend. Has anyone stopped to ask the impact of these increased premiums on our weakened economy?
Young people are turning thumbs down on Obama Care in droves. Yet, they will be assessed a tax albeit a small one, initially. The impact of Obama Care on job creation is already self evident, bad. They are burdened by student debt. As fewer people join up and pay less than expected, the government will have to provide massive subsidies to keep Obama Care going. Has anyone stopped to ask the impact of these subsidies on our weakened economy?
Just asking…

Karen

My daughter is 23 years old her husband is 27 they have two young children they both work my daughter finally found a job housekeeping for a hotel. She is not too proud to work cleaning, most jobs this days are manual labor which most do not want to do. Jobs are there you just have to try, Americans feel they are the privileged ones always a pity party. Get off your duff and and try!!!

ian

i agree….too many amaericans think they deserve the best jobs without even trying. Sorry folks, but an expensive education at a top university is not your guarantee for a job.

chris

I agree that there are people who refuse to lower their standards and accept a job that is beneath them, but, Karen, it would be interesting to know how many people applied for that housekeeping job. If your daughter was the only one who applied, then it would give credence to your claim that Americans refuse to work lower paid jobs. But if there were 300 applicants and your daughter and a handful of other lucky few got the job, then you would have a hard time substantiating your claim.

chris

Continued…
I live in Montreal and I have a friend who is a manager at McDonalds. He tells me that he gets on average 70 applications a week, and they’re not even hiring. The applications run the gamut from young teenagers looking for their first job, students, people who once made a great salary but have lost their job, and seniors. At the end of the month he throws most of the applications in the recycling bin and keeps just a few. I think the main problem is that they’re are not enough jobs to go around.

El Pollo de Oro

Chris: Bingo. You nailed it: not enough jobs to go around, even when it comes to low-paying service jobs. And that’s bad news for businesses in general because people who are making less have less money to spend.

One thing I’m curious about. Does your friend at the McDonalds in Montreal prefer bilingual applicants who speak both French and English, or do monolingual applicants also have a shot?

Chris

Bilingual applicants are always favored here in Montreal, regardless of what job your applying to. If you only speak French you still have a good shot at landing at least an interview. If you only speak English- forget about it. I’ve come across several Americans who have come up here looking for a job. They speak French, albeit not that great. Nevertheless, they can still carry a conversation in French. But there are some employers who test applicants’ French writing skills during the interview. And as you can imagine the American applicant almost always fails that part, thus no job.

El Pollo de Oro

Chris: merci beaucoup pour l’information. I’ve been to Montreal and Quebec City and found that people were much friendlier when I made an effort to speak francais. It always amuses me when I talk to fellow Americans who want to leave the country and think that speaking English exclusively is fine wherever they go. They’ve heard that Chile is doing relatively well and think they can just show up in Santiago without speaking a word of Spanish and get a high-paying job. Ha ha! Little do they know.

PostPartum

What we need to do now is bring in about 20 million Mexicans and that ought to make things just dandy! /s

retro 22

rrrr

Jodi

I’m so sick of the media & our governments lies about the economic recovery. It doesn’t exist. The company I currently work for just laid somebody off & I only work with 10 people. Even companies that small are just trying to stay afloat.

retro 22

For starter , here are some things to think about!
1) after the crisis of 2008 Washington started hiring government employers on a massive scale.This helped bulk up the employment rate by adding many million more rubber stampers & pencil pushers who produce nothing marketable,only a lot of paper to clog up the economy.The old line about employing 10,000 people for road work.5,000 men would go down the highway & dig 5,000 pot holes & leave a pile of dirt next to each pot hole.Another work gang would then come along with shovels & fill in the pot holes previously made.Presto,there are 10,000 more Americans working!
2)All of those people who dropped out of seeking work,Where did they go?Did they go to Mars or the Moon?My guess is they went to unemployment benefits or signed on for disability.How can we raise money to pay these people?Print more paper money for ever & ever?
3) how many desperate people are working part time, low end jobs & barely staying alive.These people are considered as employed by Washington.
4)what percentage of the population never worked & are on permanent welfare of 1 sort or another?
5)If we were to tally the total number of people who can be employed & subtracted the number who are actually employed we may come up with an unemployment number of 20%-25% unemployment. And this number is arrived at by using falsified government figures , who can say what it would be using realistic numbers!

nekksys

If you follow the “7 percent” link Michael provided in that 1st paragraph, you’ll note this:

Related: White House wants to extend unemployment benefits

If unemployment numbers are so good, why extend benefits? Seems to me the music is about to stop…

Dude

I think any thinking person can figure out that if the government is borrowing 1 Trillion dollars a year to prop up the economy, than things are not good and the real unemployment rate is going up.

Andrew Carson

Is it at all possible to go back into national archives when the jobless rate was then “7 percent” and see what the work participation rate was at that same time? This might make for some interesting explanations from political leaders. What was the jobless/participation ratio in say 1963, 1973, 1983, 1993, 2003 and 2013? Don’t be surprised if the answer appears more like obfuscation than explanation.

Mondobeyondo

There is no economic recovery, in spite of what the evening newsmeisters and the glowing performance of the Dow Jones, Nasdaq, etc. say.
The average man/woman on the street would beg to differ. As in, literally, beg. (“You got any spare change, buddy?”) I see it happen every day, in just about every other parking lot around here.

Trailer Park Investor

The beginning of the Zombie Apocalypse also called Obama Care, food stamps, Medicare, Disability, SSI you name it, it’s all coming down. People that can’t take a bath for a few weeks, that have not eaten anything but grass for a couple of weeks, have not changed their clothes in a couple of months, Have NOT lived indoors for a couple of months. you will NOT be able to tell the difference from them OR the Zombies. It’s coming and it’s REAL…

El Pollo de Oro

On Dec. 6, Shadow Stats reported that the REAL unemployment rate in the BRA is 23.2%. That’s almost as bad as 1932/1933. But what awaits us is going to be much worse.

El Pollo de Oro

Some folks have asked me where the resentment of preppers comes from. Why do some Americans have it in for preppers? In a nutshell, it comes down to shooting the messenger. Many Americans are romantics. Blindly, ignorantly, foolishly, naively, stupidly romantic. They want very badly to believe that Barack “Goldman Sachs” Obama is going to lead us to the promise land, that this is “the new Camelot” and that happy times are right around the corner. So when preppers prep, the “think happy thoughts” crowd resent hearing the truth. The truth hurts, and the truth is that we are still in a deep depression. Just check out John Williams’ Shadow Stats if you want REAL unemployment figures (try 23.2%). But in a sense, we’re even worse off than we were in the 1930s because at least in the 1930s, the country had a manufacturing base. The words “made in the USA” are the words of yesterday.

So yes, preppers are prepping. When a gigantic bulldozer is heading straight for your head, ignoring the thing won’t make it go away.

quercus454

It’s even much worse then that. Inflation has been eating up the worth of the fiat dollar for years.

me

Oh, how I agreed 100%. Every president and politician now a day have been put in office by the special interest or bought by highest bidder. If you can’t be bought, you will be crossed out. That’s why do Ron Paul is retired.

Alex

As things get worse, I can only hope people will come together and help each other out. Of course, I won’t hold my breath.

2Gary2

the CEOs at America’s top six fast food chains alone pocketed over
$183 million in “deductible ‘performance pay,’ lowering their
companies’ IRS bills by an estimated $64 million.”

The
biggest individual winner: the CEO at YUM! Brands, the corporate giant
that owns Taco Bell, KFC, and Pizza Hut. Yum’s David Novak pocketed $94
million worth of “performance pay” in 2011 and 2012. The taxpayer
subsidy for that largesse: $33 million.

TAX THE RICH HARD AND SPREAD THE WEALTH.

wombobobo

38. Gary is a piece of human excrement

2Gary2

ok Hoss-you may be OK with your tax dollars subsidizing these overpaid CEO and very profitable companies but I am not and I would guess that most tax paying folks feel as I do.

Your on your own with this hoss.

Malcolm Reynolds

It’s good to see you’re so well respected around here.

2Gary2

people like me who speak the truth are generally ridiculed by those of lesser intelligence who simply parrot faux neus.

Also I could care less what a bunch of unthinking dolts think of me.

Malcolm Reynolds

How original. A devotee of the 100% failed communist ideology says everyone else is of lesser intelligence and doesn’t think and as an added bonus, slides in ol’ reliable ‘faux neus’
Points for changing news to neus tho.

I don’t even have cable and couldn’t tell you the last time I was on the Foxnews website, so what’s my excuse?

Teacher says, every time a muppet says TAX THE RICH, a one trick pony gets it’s wings.
#38 to the above.
we are taxing the rich and spreading the wealth.

http://www.commieblaster.com/ Barry Sucks

TAX THE RICH HARD AND SPREAD THE WEALTH.

Then the rich will leave the country , then what you gona do.

2Gary2

Your income tripled/ Mother Jones magazine has come up with a handy-dandy online calculator
you can use to see how much more you would be making today if incomes
in America had all been increasing equally over the past 50 years.

Time to take back our money from the rich

wombobobo

39. Gary dreams of a communist utopia

2Gary2

nothing communist about wanting the productivity gains to be shared more equally. They were shared more equally in the 20th century until Reagan.

You prove my point about brain dead conservatives.

Malcolm Reynolds

They are being shared equally among those that earn them.
You wouldn’t know what brain dead is you muppet. You haven’t even got a pulse.

very good thanks–everyone in our company received a $77 rebate from United health Insurance as they did not spend the mandated 85% on healthcare. We need it way more than some rich CEO.

Malcolm Reynolds

You’re illiterate.
You received a rebate on your CORPORATE health care. It no havey no thing to do with no obammy care.

2Gary2

the letter said the rebate was due to the new guidelines in the aca. sorry hoss you are wrong.

Malcolm Reynolds

post it. I think you’re lying.

wombobobo

#37 is Gary’s wet dream

Rufus T Firefly

I am making more money than ever and my stock portfolio is up. Life is good. God rewards those who deserve it and the rest of you losers get the dirt you deserve. You tormented me growing up but I am having the last- and best- laugh. Hah! Hah! Hah!

Will Rogers

Rufus…I have a feeling there are a LOT of people who experienced exactly what you did and have nothing to show for it. This is everybody Rufus…the jocks, nerds, clowns, everyone.

cannuck21

Absolutely correct – and it is heartbreaking – even more so for the younger generation. Thanks for your good comment.

carolyn

Yes, the economy is getting worse. The people who run the government just make the numbers in their favor. Just cook the books and make it work, even if it is not true.! If the numbers are wrong, just pretend and make those numbers right! Pretty soon we will all be homeless waiting in line for ration food, if you can get any! Sounds like Communism to me! While they are hyping up the economy and lying about home modification programs that don’t exist, we rich and poor are losing our security in this nation. No wonder we have millions of children and parents homeless.

SomeoneCallChuck

Will someone, for the love of God, call Chuck Norris. How is he not pissed? Please don’t strike me down with your vengence mighty Norris. Maybe all that snow in the midwest was Chuck Norris crying in OK?

michelle

we are still underemployed. Until we make what we did before 2008 there is no recovery for us. my husband’s wages are what they were in 1998-99.

quercus454

Think about this. In the late 1960s my father, a carpenter was earning $500/week before taxes. A new car cost on average less then 3 grand. As a child I lived a middleclass life. We never wanted for much, had a nice house , lived in a good neighborhood. We took family vacations and had health insurance. Compare that with today. Construction workers today if they are lucky enough to find a job are working for the same or less money then my father did in 1968.

americalsgt

If the government has the numbers, then they have the data as well.
Of these NEW jobs,
How many were less than 30 hours?.
How many were full time positions?
How many were a second job for someone?
Please break down the starting salary or hourly rate?
How many were private and how many were govt?
How many received benefits? Provide details
( Med etc)

Were they all US citizens?

How many were illegal hires?

They have this information and more. People here are more knowledgeable than I am in economics, and could add to my list of questions, but until they provide this information, we have ever right to question the numbers as they are coming from a government who has lied to us and continues to lie to us every single day.

Adam J. Bernay

We can’t re-elect Obama. Fortunately, he is term-limited out.

SantosGarcia

He was re-elected in 2012. The damage is done… and continues.

robo14

Thing have not improved much at all if my online sales are any indication.

DB200

#22 As 2003 began, the average price of a gallon of regular gasoline was about $1.30. When Barack Obama took office, the average price of a gallon of regular gasoline was $1.85. Today, it is $3.26.

Which is still considerably cheap, given the fact that the petrodollar era is running towards its end. When that happens be ready for a $ 8 – $ 15 range.

Sue

The way Democrats work is not to create an environment where opportunities grow so people can pull themselves out of poverty. It’s to manage the life you have. You work at Wal-mart? Well obviously you will always work at Wal-mart so lets raise the minimum wage. Don’t have a job? Well you probably won’t ever get one so lets give you SNAP and endless unemployment benefits.

Nicnak

if you want 0 unemployment. give money to everybody.
anyway, since when in this universe, people must be employed? Everybody is employed by himself… I m my own boss!

Or we can say we are employed by God to run his world!

StephenWV

If everyone were on government assistance, the unemployment rate would be zero.

Nicnak

Europe is a piece of crap!
I m from europe…

Drud

The terms themselves are in drift. Yes, I read the wikipedia entry. This only further proves Schopenhauer’s assertion that all arguments are in essence an exercise in semantics. My description is based on what I was taught in high school and this is the scale that I keep in mind. The real point is that according to this scale “Marxism” is concept is a very low control ideal, but when put into practice becomes very high control; the state exists to enforce “sharing.” Conversely, libertarianism, is very low control in both concept and practice; the government exist to enforce individual rights and freedoms.

Liberty One

Lie# 38 OBOZO Lie #39 “Yes We Can”…Period

Agent P

There is a reoccurring theme with posts like this, and it does great damage to the credibility of the post and its author, both.

And that is the use of the Presidency as an easy target-reference in order for the dumbed-down to have something they can ‘relate’ to. In other words, a ‘whipping boy’…

The fact is, the president has Very Little in the way of influence or even involvement with issues economic. Take for example: ‘Obamacare’. It was neither written or devised by Obama. Yet, his name is all over it, simply because he is the flavor-of-the-election-cycle spokesman for Socialized medicine, doesn’t mean he was the Creator of it…

Neither is it the economy. The statistics the author here cites are but a symptom of a much larger problem – a problem that can easily be argued started ~Generations~ before this president ever came to power. He is simply one in a long line of Oligarch puppets who have been trotted out to the masses, as the point man for every ill – or every gain, that the U.S. ship-of-state encounters.

This arrangement serves a purpose, in case you hadn’t noticed. It makes the presidency a ‘catch-all’ of positive or negative sentiment regarding Everything that affects the citizenry. At the same time, it makes it easy for both the citizenry and the media punditry, to blame or laud one single entity, while keeping the TV shows and talk-show circuit always chock full of ‘news’ to cover.

Reducing the office of the presidency to an ongoing ‘media event’ also reduces the thought process, reasoning skills and necessary skepticism that tends to keep government in check, to a Minimum…

The fact is that we are in the end stages of a ~Huge~ credit cycle, helped along in no small part by the disengagement of our $currency to a foundation of value. In the case of global monetary history for at least the past 2000 years, that foundation of value would be Gold…

LMAO LMAO

obama signed obamacare. ALL LIBS masturbated daily about the obamacare fantasy.
obama not responsible for it? you have got to be kidding sir

arley_barley

What I shared, when placing the article at my wall:

The down-slope getting Faster,
Bad times, behind, and ahead,
Our system broke, a disaster,
USA soon laid to rest, not in a bed.

Direction that we are going,
May be our last Curtain Call,
The winds of Death are blowing,
So bad, in Jerusalem, it’s snowing.

And getting more press. AMEN

GSOB

OO..OO..OO

Mention the PS shootings, the US drug cartel, Duck dynasty, Glenn Beck,
and the Fukushima disaster still unfolding

arley_barley

unsubscribe please

majorx

Not surprising…the election of Barack Obama as President is a giant lie. Eventually it will be exposed that America has been had by a group of ruthless politicians, both Democrats and Republicans.

Richard O. Mann

Actually, the government has Not always lied. At least, not to the extent of what our leaders are doing today. This whole idea caught on will Bill Clinton. After 8 years of Teflon Bill, the whole country pretty much gave up on hearing the truth from DC ever again. So, now even if some one in DC is telling the truth, a large part of the public think they are not.

bugs

Children Of Tomorrow

Children of tomorrow
I apologize to you
On behalf of those in my time
For the things we didn’t do
We didn’t stop the tyrants
So your fate could be prevented
We watched them steal our freedom
By our silence we consented
We didn’t choose to circumvent
The doom you’ve not escaped
While the Bill of Rights was murdered
And the Constitution raped
Some of us were lazy
Others too afraid
To think about our children
The ones we have betrayed
I guess we were too busy
To be concerned or care
To try to ease the burden
Of the chains we made you wear
We could have been good shepherds
When the wolf got in the fold
But we watched the flame of freedom die instead
And left you cold

I’m sorry we were timid
My selfish generation
We left you but a remnant
Of a free and prosperous nation
I’m sorry for our actions
Like cowards we behaved
We could have left you freedom
Instead you are enslaved
Children of tomorrow
Descendants of our land
I’m sorry we allowed this
The fate you now with stand

allah_speaking

Technically speaking, the country is in the second Great Depression.

Kat73

I am just absolutely astounded. I have now read a few of your articles on similar topics to gain the best understanding, and although Obama came into office when the economy was going downhill – I certainly did not realise it was this bad. I am not even an American citizen, just a corncerned New Zealander. In little NZ, yes the economy can always be better but it was supposedly a healthy spending year for christmas 2013. In comparison, things in US are sounding rather grim since the global financial crisis. Possibly because we are smaller and younger, with less riding on our economy, which is why it didn’t seem to affect us as much – maybe the original debt was too great for the US to come back from. Due to this, causing it to sell of it’s companies to overseas buyers, leaving people out of jobs. Coinciding with this, weathly to-level managers needed to cut costs resulting in middle-level managers getting the boot and nothing whatsoever being done to their personal salaries while other employees finiances suffered due to inflation.

Le brebis galleux blog

Une catastrophe liée aux Juifs de la Fed !
le brebis galleux blog

NoPasaran

Connard. Make sure to check under your bed at night. They might be hiding there. You’re so important, they’re surely after you.

tennesseetuxedo59

paranoid zub ?

Aajaxx

I don’t think we are seeing Obama personally lying. This is just the standard way labor statistics are reported in this country. In times like this it is deceptive. However, if you are paying attention, the media have reported the participation rate, and have also pointed out that many who have jobs are only working part time or are otherwise underemployed. Obama himself is not bragging about any recovery. That’s why he wants Congress to work on jobs, which they refuse to do because more people are worried about taxes and deficits than they are about their unemployed neighbors.

jimithy

the purchasing power of my dollars has been going the wrong way for a long time now — that is my reality — all else is rainbows & lollipops

The Red Ox

This has nothing to do with the government, its pure demographics. Our economy is based off of 70% of consumer spending. Since the Boomers have stopped spending and have started saving, this has slowed the economy drastically and it will only get worse. No matter what the government does it will not be able to right the ship. I have no association with Harry Dent Jr. but I find his insights amazing. Look him up!